Texas Christmas 2013 Part 1

We did the "leave in the middle of the night" thing again. Except this time, we left a little earlier. Since I was able to nap in the afternoon, we all had an early dinner and went to bed. Our goal was to be out the door by 11 pm. We did pretty good, I think we got away by 11:15 and our first stop was Birmingham for Whataburger.

First time trying the spicy ketchup...super yummy for someone that hates ketchup

Movie time!!!! I think we watched the Lorax 100 times!

So our first weekend of the trip was in the Houston area with my extended family. We stayed the first night with Nicole, Bryan and Noah and then on Sunday, we managed to see Dale and Sherree, Grandma Milady and Grandpa Clarence and stayed with Aunt Claire and Uncle Ricky. Lots of people to see!!

Collin and Uncle Ricky

Sherree helping Taryne make a picture

Hayden LOVES his new trucks!

This is one of my favorite Nativity sets. I remember setting it out at my grandparents each year as a child. I loved that Taryne and Hayden spent quite a bit of time with it. It also made me nervous that something might break.

I absolutely LOVE this picture!

He is just so stinkin' cute here!

Our Christmas

Of course we had our family Christmas early since we went to Texas. We had breakfast for dinner...it seems to have become our family tradition to have a breakfast dish for our Christmas. This year I made snowman pancakes with bacon scarves. Something different and I think I saw it on Pinterest.

Playing Ball

We have an amazing side yard between our group of town homes and the next. Taryne and Hayden LOVE to play ball and we spend a lot of time on the weekends outside kicking and throwing all sorts of balls. Unless it is raining, we will bundle up and play.

Pixie!

Pixie came back this year. She did threaten to leave and never come back because both Taryne and Hayden had a little trouble following instructions before Christmas. However, Pixie loves them so much and decided to come back and of course, they redeemed themselves. And Pixie had lots of fun around the house this Christmas season.

Flying under the fan

She isn't very good at hide and seek...

Fishing for goldfish

Christmas Tree Hunt

This year we went to a Christmas tree farm and cut our own tree. I have wanted to do this for years and at first I was a bit disappointed. The trees to cut were not the variety I really wanted. They don't grow here, but if we had drove about an hour east or to North Carolina we could have cut our own Fraser Fir. The first few trees we looked at were sort of small and scraggly. How could all the good ones be gone when it was still Thanksgiving weekend?

We finally decided to spend a little more and found a really nice tree. It looked sort of small, but it was the best shaped one we could find. Since I had made such a fuss about cutting our own tree, Kyle was not going to let me leave with one of the Fraser Firs that were cut and brought in. I had to pick one out in the field. So I did. And Kyle cut it down. And when we got home, it was HUGE! And it had no smell. I think it was a type of Cypress. It did not lose needles which was awesome, but it didn't smell. That is one of the main reasons (for me) I like to get a fresh tree.

We have a TON of ornaments! And this wasn't all of them...There are enough for 2 large trees.